Glann Close Interview

A touch of evil

Playing evil is obviously not a problem for actress Glenn Close.

After all, this is the star who shot to fame playing a knife-wielding bunny-boiling mistress in Fatal Attraction before turning her murderous intentions to puppies in 101 Dalmatians.

Not content with striking fear into the hearts of children everywhere, Close is reprising her Cruella De Vil role for the sequel 102 Dalmatians and she couldn't be happier.

"The real joy about doing Cruella again is she's very forceful and she's larger-than-life," she says. "You rarely get the chance to play characters this big in movies unless you're doing Shakespeare."

In real life, the 53-year-old actress claims she's nowhere near as intimidating as her monstrous screen creations which have included the wicked widow, the Marquis de Mertheuil, in Dangerous Liaisons. Yet her most memorable roles have given her a rather forbidding image.

Close shrugs at the suggestion that for a generation of cinema-goers she has become the embodiment of female evil and says that in all her roles she has found something to like in the character, no matter how unsympathetic the subject.

"It's safe to say that unless I get another exceptional character in my career, people are going to remember me for Fatal Attraction and as Cruella," she says, adding: "Unfortunately it's pretty hard to shake off images of boiled rabbits, society bitch and a dog-hater.

"I don't think my characters are all awful and horrible. There are reasons for their behaviour and I have to find their weaknesses, what makes them human. I believe you have to love the characters you play, even if no-one else does."

Close concedes that Cruella De Vil is a truly frightening figure for children, mainly due to her vampish appearance. True to form, in 102 Dalmatians, Close sports black and white back-combed hair, lacquered red talons and a wardrobe which wouldn't look out of place in a Las Vegas cabaret act.

Once again the plot sees Cruella on the trail of the puppies in the quest to obtain a Dalmatian fur coat. As well as the torturous costumes, Close found herself having to be dunked in dough and turned into a giant cake. Not a pleasant experience for the actress, but she admits to turning down the offer of a stunt double for the scene.

"I wanted kids to know that it's really Cruella going through this punishment for what she was planning to do to the puppies," she says.